"20mm Napoleonics Anyone?" Topic

After a spending a lifetime on 25mm (or 28mm as they are now termed) Napoleonics, I am thinking of dipping a cautious toe into 20mm and was wondering what the options might be. (I'm after metals, not plastics, though I know this restricts things somewhat).

The period would be mid-Napoleonic with the French in shakos and pre-Bardin uniforms; the British in stove pipes; the British cavalry in tarletons and bicornes, and the Spanish in the early uniform with bicornes.

In terms if the look, I wanted figures with realistic anatomical proportions. Nothing ‘vintage', so no Hinton Hunts, etc, nice though they can look.

I saw some excellent Napoleon Miniatures figures in an old issue of WSS; a Spanish company I believe. They were just the sort of thing that I was after but I understand the company is sadly defunct now. I was also wondering how the old Britannia figures, sold by the Dayton Painting Consortium, compare; I couldn't find any photos of this range. There are some superb figures being produced in Europe (The figures of Massimo Costa and Frank Ziegler are stunning) but their coverage of the period is a bit patchy.

I suspect there are not too many 20mm/1:72 Napoleonic Wargamers out there, though perhaps the wargames magazines don't give a true impression of the hobby. Any thoughts (or photos) on the subject would be most welcome.

RSM from DPC (actually ex Pax Britannica, not Britannia) are very fine figures and a large range but I don't know about availability and quality of castings as the moulds must be fairly old. A test purchase would be called for. The other range that comes to mind is Newline Designs, again extensive and like RSM "small" 20mm – I don't know whether the two would work together.

Plenty of pics on their website. Don't know if they have a distributor in the States.

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There are a couple of pictures of RSM 20 mm on the Waterloo to Mons blog

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And

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Though I am a 28mm man, I have a friend who collects 20mm and swears by Newline Designs. Also, I would recommend looking at Franznap figures. The latter are good for French and central European armies but not so good for British and Spanish etc.

franznap.jigsy.com/SHOP

Minutemen Toy Soldiers is a distributor of Newline Designs in the United States. I don't know if Napoleonics are available yet, but check with George, he is a great guy.

Art Miniaturen have kept me occupied since I started working in 20mm for the Waterloo project. The latest releases are incredibly detailed. Limited range however for British

The Art Miniaturen look great – hopefully we can get someone in the USA to carry them!!

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I have some RSM French Hussars (x10) and some Art Miniaturen Cuirassiers (x9) that you could have for a tenner and P&P (I'm Gtr London too).

BTW the RSM web-site is at:

dpcltdcom.org

I started gaming with Jack Scruby 20mm Napoleonics over 50 years ago. I still have a thousand or two in my garage. These figures are still available from Historifigs but the molds are getting old.

In terms of newe figures, Newline's figures are awesome. Irregualar's 20mm and RSM's 20mm figures match well in size.

Musket Miniatures makes HO scale ACW figures in metal but their wagons and terrain pieces might be useful.

I wrote an article for MWAN many years ago that discussed the various manufacturers of 20mm figures. It's out of date but you might find it useful. If you want a copy you can contact me directly at burker1 (at) aol (dot) com.

Warning, some European manufacturers advertise their figures as "20mm" but they are actually closer to true 25s and match in size the old Ral Partha 25mm figures. Thankfully, Newline and Irregular don't have that problem.

Thank you all very much indeed for your helpful and informative replies.

To summarise: I had a look at Newline and thought they were a little chunky for my taste. The RSM figures, on the Waterloo to Mons web site, looked very good indeed, though I was slightly put off by the fact that they were compared to AB Miniatures in size. I suspect that they would like rather small beside the new figures that are coming out.

I had a reply from La Flecha Negra in Spain confirming that the Napoleon Miniatures range had been discontinued some time ago. This was a great shame because the figures looked excellent and were just what I was after.

So, for the time being, I'm sticking to my old 25mm/28mm figures but will be keeping a keen eye on what Franznap and Art Miniaturen (and others) come out with, with a view one day to taking the plunge.

If you speak German, you could find some of them for guidance. For whatever reason, the Germans prefer 20mm, or "true 25mm." Those terms are pretty much interchangeable. It's really 1/72, and I'd expect that's the way the Europeans identify the figures.

Don't know about the French. Maybe someone else can tell us what scale(s) they prefer.

Look at franznap. They are just out of this world: franznap.jigsy.com/SHOP

Deadhead is right re AM, they are excellent too, but for mine not quite at the franznap lever. Consider mixing either with the top notch Zvezda plastics. I think those 3 rival Perry 28mm and AB 18mm, and sometimes exceed them (pitchforks now being reached for)

I am painting Airfix plastics as a lockdown / nostalgia project and I use Newline 20mm to fill in the gaps – British heavy cavalry, French lancers, etc. Newline are shorter, heftier and look fine in the same units, on slightly thicker bases where required.

There are some nice ranges out there, notably Franznap, but they're remarkably expensive – perhaps because this is so niche.